cooking, eating and writing

pasta with wine-braised sausage

One of the real perks of living in Ellensburg, as we did many years ago, was proximity to the town of Cle Elum, home of Glondo’s Sausages. Recently recovered from a serious bout of vegetarianism, we were ready to take advantage of Glondo’s wonderful products, and this recipe is what we invariably made when we were feeling festive. Now that we’re an inconvenient 140 miles from Glondo’s, we have to make do with the sausages from our local grocery, but the pasta is still very tasty.

1/2 pound gemelli pasta (rotini or farfalle would do nicely here as well)

2 hot Italian sausages, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely diced

1 small to medium carrot, very finely diced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 fresh sage leaves

pinch of ground cloves

1/2 cup white wine (I used Viognier this time, as it was open, but a drier white would do better)

1 can diced tomatoes

Put on the pasta to cook until just al dente. Drain and set aside.

Saute the sausage pieces in a large heavy skillet, until browned. Remove from the pan, leaving a spoonful of fat behind.

Add the olive oil to the drippings, and saute the onion, carrots and parsley in the fat until soft.

Add the browned sausage chunks, garlic and sage and cook a few minutes, then add the pinch of cloves and half the wine and bring to a bubble. Make sure to scrape all the good stuff off the bottom of the pan. When the wine has boiled dry, add the rest. Set it to a slow burble and leave it for about 10 minutes.

Pour in the tomatoes and their juice and simmer until the sauce is slightly thickened.

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss well. You can add a little of the pasta cooking water if the sauce needs thinning out. Serve. I don’t usually add cheese to this dish, but grated parmesan certainly wouldn’t hurt it any. Open some red wine.